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News: Former PCC Baseball Coach Lani Exton Passes Away At 76

Alan "Lani" Exton, the Pasadena City College head baseball coach in the late 1970s, passed away Sunday at Citrus Valley Medical Center due to undisclosed causes. He was 76.

Exton played baseball at Arcadia High, then was a two-time, All-Western State Conference pitcher at PCC before earning a scholarship to play at UCLA. He was hired as an assistant coach to Lancers' head coach Ron Robinson in 1974 after a successful prep coaching career at Arcadia. He directed the Apaches from 1964-1973, including the 1965 CIF Southern Section 3A championship. He was inducted into the Arcadia High Coaches Hall of Fame in 2003.

At PCC, Exton became just the then fourth head baseball coach in PCC history in 1976 in succeeding Robinson. Although he was a head coach for a short five-year tenure, Exton coached three future Major League Baseball players on the '77 Lancers' squad in lefty pitcher Matt Young, a 1983 All-Star Game participant from the Seattle Mariners, infielder Rod Booker, and second baseman Alan Wiggins, a member of the 1984 National League pennant-winning San Diego Padres.

Exton continued to teach P.E. classes at PCC into the early 2000s.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, May 4 at 10:30 a.m. at Loraine Avenue Baptist Church (151 S. Loraine Avenue) in Glendora.